A Very Important Project!!! They Need your support.

A collaborative project with young people across Gaza to create photostories and hold exhibitions in Palestine and the UK.

This is not simply about getting young people in Gaza to take photos but enabling them to apply multiple layers of meaning to those photographs and thereby their surroundings.

New Routes is a photostory project that will explore the lives of young people across the Gaza Strip. This project will collaborate with young people and enable them to create stories of their everyday routes and endeavors. In other contexts this type of approach has helped highlight undocumented issues, break stereotypes, and reveal new routes forward.

Through a series of workshops young people will generate their own themes, learn composition skills, and write narratives to accompany their photographs. The project aims to work with six diverse groups each containing between ten and fifteen young people. Results from the different workshops will be put together in an exhibition in Gaza and the UK.

I designed this project in response to a ‘knowledge transfer’ initiative launched by a group of Palestinians living in Southampton and civil society groups in Gaza. The creative process is punctuated with the exhibition and in subsequent dialogue generated by the photostories.

A brilliant team of volunteers has already spent many hours advising, creating, and designing material for use in publicity and workshops. The necessary permissions to access Gaza have been granted and we will arrive in June. All that is now required are the funds for equipment and materials.

Workshops in Indonesia

Phase 1 (minimum target):

The minimum target is £1750 and will be used to purchase compact digital cameras (to be reused), to print photographs (copies for participants and copies for use in workshops), for exhibition costs in Gaza (printing and display materials), and also to buy a compact photo printer (to print contact sheets and serve as a back up). The work of the project will also be archived for participants and organisations. There will also be a contribution for expenses (accommodation and travel).

This project will be possible purely through donations.

The more donations received the more we can achieve; higher quality images can be attained, and more can be done with the results…

Phase 2 (beyond the minimum target):

Once the minimum target is met please keep supporting because we will be able to get more equipment and collaborate with more young people in Gaza. If we surpass £2250 we will be able to work with two groups at the same time. Additionally partners in Gaza co-facilitating workshops will receive a thank you gift for their time and effort.

If more than £3200 is raised we will self-publish a book revealing the full process, details of the workshops, evaluation and results. This will present a rigorous account of the project, with sections peer-reviewed. Hopefully becoming of service to those seeking to do similar work as well as serving as a record of young lives in Gaza.

Remember if the minimum target is not reached the project does not go ahead and your donations are not taken.

The project has recieved input from a range of experienced colleagues and professionals working in international development. Hopefully many of the challenges and risks have been anticipated and embraced.

A primary concern is ensuring that there is access to expertise and resources that can help overcome unexpected difficulties in Gaza - for this a personal network of practitioners who are at hand to assist has been developed.

Another anticipated risk is that the sheer volume of material created during the project might delay distribution of rewards to backers - but don't worry you will be kept up-to-date.